As long as there have been payment transactions, consumers have engaged in shared transactions. With traditional paper currency, each of the participating consumers would pitch in with their portion, with the accumulated paper currency being presented to the merchant and any change distributed accordingly. As payment cards, such as credit and debit cards, have increased in use, many merchants have begun to accommodate the sharing of transactions by using point of sale systems configured to split transaction amounts and charge the split transaction amount to each of the various payment cards supplied by the consumers.
However, such methods only enable the sharing of a transaction among consumers who are physically together. In instances where a single consumer is shopping on behalf of others, the sharing of a transaction becomes more difficult. The shopping consumer may conduct the payment transaction, but then must rely on the other consumers to pay them back. Not only may this be unreliable, but it also requires the shopping consumer to have access to the full transaction amount and later be refunded, which may be difficult, particularly for larger purchases and instances where the shopping consumer uses a debit card.
Thus, there is a need for a technical solution whereby a transaction can be charged to a group of consumers, but without the need for each of the consumers to be present or provide separate payment details. The use of a technical solution that can enable a transaction to be shared among multiple consumers by the presentation of a single set of payment details may also enable the sharing of a transaction without modification to merchant point of sale systems, resulting in easier adoption and use of such a solution.